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The other day I was sitting in a bar with a friend, then there were these set of guys whose table was right beside ours. Due to the proximity of our tables, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. Yes, it was about girls, and then when they brought up a certain name - Amaka - one asked, “That girl wey get small boobs?” Then another added, “Her breast be like tangerine,” and they all laughed.
Like for real? The only way they could describe the girl was by the size of her boobs? How would Amaka feel if she was standing behind them and overhearing this distasteful description of her? And when she now decides to get a boob-job done, the same people will choose to condemn her…hian!
In the last couple of years, there has been a growing trend of Nigerian women boldly engaging in cosmetic surgery to enhance one part of their body or the other. Given today's reality that we are many at times judged by our appearance, it is perfectly understandable for us to look good, perhaps better than our natural self. Many pro-surgery advocates including myself, believe it is an art to be able to enhance the beauty of a person, which is the main aim of cosmetic surgery.
The belief that having surgery is usually a result of low self-esteem might not necessarily be true. May be true in some cases, but I don’t believe it’s entirely true, at least not in all cases. You can’t tell me that Toke Makinwa, Dabota Lawson and Tonto Dikeh who are amongst some of the popular Nigerian ladies who have gone under the knife have low self-esteem. I beg to disagree.
What some people don’t understand is that as humans, there are some things we may not like about ourselves. It could be as little as the mole on your face to an unsatisfactory size of a part of the body. Are going to tell me that if given the chance and financial opportunity, you will not adjust a part of your body that gives you worry?
Take for instance; a woman has excess fat in her stomach region. She goes to have liposuction to get rid of the fat and you want to troll her for that? How is she different from the one that spends money buying slimming tea or the one that goes to the gym every day trying to burn the fat around her tummy? Obviously, they are all trying to achieve the same thing, but just going about it in different ways.
I chose to think of body enhancement surgeries like this – I have one eye, but if I think to have two eyes will make me happier, what’s to stop me from getting it? If I have one leg and I feel like getting another leg will help boost my self-esteem and make me more confident, why should I not get a prosthetic?
This also applies in the case of women getting cosmetic surgery done. If a woman feels like getting a boob job done because she is not too happy about how saggy her boobs have become over time, I absolutely don’t see anything wrong about it. If she wants to get a nice butt, curvy hips to appear more attractive, I still don't see anything wrong with that.
We all know it is not easy hitting the gym every day to exercise and lose massive body fat, especially if you are too busy to frequent the gym. So, if anyone finds the easiest way to achieve that, why must she be criticized?
For some of you who hold the opinion that one is supposed to love themselves just the way God created them, I hear you. Go and tell that to the blind man who has never used his sight. By the way, how do you convince a blind man or a man who is cripple that he is ‘perfectly and wonderfully made’?
If God didn’t want us to change things about us, why do you cut your hair and fingernails? Why do you shave your beards, armpit and pubic hair? Why not just let the hair continuously grow? Why do you build muscles and 6-packs?
Oh, I guess it’s okay to do all that by stressing yourself the hell out but not by surgery, right?
Men in particular, by their own obsession push women to go the limit, just to look good. With words like thick, curvy, and the likes being thrown around on a regular, young girls come to believe there’s a standard they should become to be attractive to all.
We are such a hypocritical society. When a person spends multi-million naira to buy cars – which by the way, we agree is a liability – he/she is celebrated. But when she spends N2million on a surgical process which will in-turn help boost her confidence and increase her self-esteem, she is condemned and called vain. I wonder whoever came up with that line of thought. In my opinion, anyone who has ever been cool with makeups and wigs has no right to condemn a woman who undergoes cosmetic surgery. All these acts are done to appear better looking than the natural self.
The truth is, we all have our insecurities and inadequacies, and I see nothing wrong in attempting to fix them. We can't deny that everyone wants to appear good-looking, hence the increasing number of people enhancing their appearances.
If anyone is secure enough to not border about cosmetic surgery, that is totally fine, but for anyone who chooses to go the surgical way, she should be left to do with her body as she wishes, but I advise her not to take too much advantage of the process, but do all things in moderation.
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Writen by Victor Enengedi
[email protected]
Victor Enengedi,
Lagos
08063274521, 08097614101